Series: Life Stories Part III: A Father Like That C. Gray Norsworthy Johns Creek Presbyterian Church June 17, 2018 Do you ever have a hard time relating to a story from the Bible? Sometimes I do. When it comes to stories about plagues, Noah and the ark, calling down fire from heaven, walking on water, and exorcisms -- if we take these literally, then how often do stories like that correspond to our everyday lives? Sometimes the stories from the Bible are hard to relate to. But, sometimes they are not, and this story today is one of those at least for me. I can relate to this story -- and maybe you can, too. We are continuing with our series of messages called Life Stories based on the parables of Jesus. Our story today is the parable of The Prodigal Son. Jesus continued: There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, Father, give me my share of the estate. So he divided his property between them. Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, How many of my father s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants. So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate. -- Luke 15:11-24, NIV This parable is a story in which many of the important events happen on the road. While it is often referred to as the story of The Prodigal Son, it does not begin with the son, but with the father. Luke tells us that there was a man a father who had two sons. Some have even suggested that it would be better to call the story The Prodigal Father because it is really about him and his actions even more than the son s. The story begins with the younger son coming to his father and asking for his share of the family fortune now. This may seem a little odd to us today, but in that culture, it was a real insult to the father almost as if the son were saying to the father, I am a little impatient, so can I have the money I am going to get when you die now? In other words, it could be interpreted to mean, I wish you were dead. (How s that for a happy message on Father s Day?) 1
But, the father goes along with his request and gives the son his inheritance. The son heads off down the road to some place like Las Vegas and spends it all at the gambling tables and girls gone wild. Then the economy goes bad famine hits and he is out of money. The son finds work feeding pigs, which would have been the last place a good Jewish boy would hope to find himself, because pigs were viewed as unclean. The son is feeding the pigs and is so hungry that he stoops to eat the pig food. And it is at this point that Luke uses a very interesting phrase. Luke says, When he came to his senses... (Luke 15:17a, NIV) In other words, he remembered who he was. He remembers his father. He remembers that he had a home. He came to his senses. So, he rehearses a speech he will make to his father when he sees him in which he will ask for forgiveness for being so self-centered. He hopes that his father would not turn him out, but at least let him work as a hired hand. So he sets off back down the road to return home. As he gets close to home, as he is coming down the road, somehow his father discovers that he is coming back. Maybe the father got up every morning and looked down that road hoping that this would be the day his son came home. Luke says that while the son was still far off, the father takes off running, puts his arms around his son s neck and kisses him. This would have raised eyebrows around the village for two reasons: first of all, grown men were not supposed to run in public. And secondly, it was the son who had wronged the father, and the son should be the one who came to the father, not vice versa. The son has his speech rehearsed, but before he can finish apologizing, his father calls for the best robe, a ring for his finger, sandals for his feet, and a fatted calf for a big party to celebrate the son s homecoming. The father adds, For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. (Luke 15:24, NIV) How many of us hear that story and think to ourselves, Wow, I wish I had a father like that? Or, how many of us who are fathers find ourselves thinking, I wish I could be a father like that? I said that I could relate to this story because in some ways my father was like that. He was not perfect, but some of the qualities of this prodigal father I saw in my Dad. I remember one time when I was a senior in high school. I had a date with a girl. It may have been our first date. She was a junior, pretty, but rather shy. I asked her out and I think we went out to eat and then went over to a party at someone s house. While we were at the party, I tried my best to engage her, but after a very short while it was very apparent that she really wasn t all that interested in me. I was using my best stuff, trying to be as witty and as charming as I knew how to be (which obviously wasn t very good for her) but she really wanted very little to do with me. So, I drove her home and I have to admit I was more than a little mad. And as teenage boys are often known to do, I took out my frustration by proceeding to drive home rather fast. I remember weaving along Mt. Paran Road, which, if you know it, is rather curvy. It was late and thankfully there were not many cars on the road. Along Mt. Paran, there are very few curbs, but there are these pointy stones used to mark the edge of the road. Going around one of the curves too fast, I must have clipped one of the stones with my right front tire, because when I rolled to a stop at the corner of Mt. Paran and Jet Road, I heard this thump, thump, thump, that let me know I had a flat tire. 2
Now I was even madder. I jerked my keys out of the car ignition, only to realize that I had not turned them off when I pulled them out, and the car was still running while I held the ignition key in my hand. So I put the keys back in and then turned off the car. I went to the trunk and opened the hatchback of my Renault 15 to look for my tire and jack. I was so mad and confused that I could not figure out how to get the tire and jack out of the car. So I decided that it was only a few miles and I would drive home on the flat tire, which I did. I don t know if you have ever done that before, but it is really annoying that thump, thump, thump. By the time I got to the house and went up our very steep driveway and pulled in the carport, the tire was in shreds. The next day when I finally got up, Dad was downstairs reading the paper at the breakfast table. First thing he said was, I see you had a little problem with your tire last night. Now my first inclination was not to tell him that I was mad and was driving too fast (among other things) and could not figure out how to change the tire, so I said this, Well, it was late and I thought the safest thing to do was to drive home. Dad looked at me and then looked down for a moment, and after what seemed like a very long time he said this: Well, I guess that was the right thing to do. I am just glad you got home safely. I don t know if Dad doubted the complete truth of my version of the story or not. He could have let me have it. He could have called me an idiot for tearing up the tire and questioned why I was driving in such a way to do that in the first place. He could have, but he didn t. He was just glad that I was home. You see, I can relate to this Bible story and the father in it because through God s grace, I had a father like that a father who could have dispensed judgment, but instead showed me grace and mercy. I am grateful to God for giving me a father like that. I realize that is not always the case. Some of us had fathers or mothers like that, but some of us didn t. Why God gives us the parents we are given, I have no idea. And if our parents were less than perfect, then maybe even hearing a story in which God is compared to a father or a mother is difficult for us. If that is the case, then you may simply need to put this on the back burner for now. I don t think this story is trying to hold up fatherhood as being God-like. But I do think it is one in which some of us can relate to how God shows grace and mercy in our lives. I can relate to this story for another reason that goes beyond my earthly father, because in one sense, this story of the prodigal son is also my story. I know I have shared with some of you that while I grew up in a Christian home and was very active in my church from a young age, when I went off to college I did go on my own journey to find out what life was really all about. I can remember saying to God, You stay over there for a while. I need to check things out. So for my first three years in college, I explored life in a distant country. For me, my time of coming to my senses came in August right before my last year in college. I bottomed out and I can remember sitting outside on the back porch and looking up at the stars and saying to God, Okay. I give up. You win. Not a very enthusiastic prayer -- but it must have worked, because it signaled my journey back home to God and my coming to my senses. So, in a very real sense, this is my story and God is like the loving father who welcomed me back home. I have to admit that it never crossed my mind that God would not welcome me back. I guess some of that is due to the fact that God had given me an earthy father who always seemed to be glad to see me come 3
back home. Maybe it established a pattern in my life that made it easier for me to come back home to God. This morning I have four invitations to make. First of all, I want to invite all of us to give thanks to God for fathers, or mothers, or others that God may have put into our lives who are like that father in this story. Maybe we did not have a father or a mother who did this, but perhaps God put someone else in our lives who did that for us. I hope you will give thanks for fathers or others like that and find a way to share that with them through a note, a phone call, or a conversation, if they are still around. But at least thank God for their place in your life. The second invitation is that each of us would try to be a father or mother or mentor, or leader whatever opportunity we might have but that we would try to be a person like that a person who shows mercy and grace when one might be expecting condemnation and judgment. It may mean that we will have to check our egos at the door. It may mean that we will have to run down the road and look like a fool to reach out to someone. That s all right. You can handle that. It will be good for you, and it may make all the difference in the life of the other person. The third thing I want to invite us to do is to give thanks to God for being a father like the one in this story. That is how God works, you know. Our world expects judgment: you get what you pay for and when you mess up, then you really get it! But God is a God of compassion and grace and mercy. Face it, we have all been the prodigal son at some time in our lives and rather than zapping us, God welcomes us back home with open arms. God s love is extravagant, as Luke shows us in this story: Find the best robe. Put a ring on his finger. Give him some sandals. Throw the best party. That s how God reacts when we come home. Give thanks to God for being a father like that. My last invitation is for those of us who have lost our way and find ourselves down the road in some distant country. Maybe we have forgotten who we really are. Maybe we have forgotten that we are a child of God and made in the image of God. Maybe we have forgotten that we are someone for whom Christ died. If you are in a distant country, God invites you to come home. Know that when you make your way back down that road, God not only will be waiting with open arms, God will run to embrace you and surround you with God s love. It s what that great old hymn of the church is all about: Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me. Come home, ye who are weary come. If you are wary and lost, God wants you to come on back home. At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, the world watched as a parable of a father's love was played out on international television. As the gun sounded for the 400-meter race, Great Britain's Derrick Redman knew that his lifelong dream of winning the gold medal was in view. But as he entered the backstretch, Redman was sent sprawling by the ripping pain of a torn hamstring. By an act of sheer will, he struggled to his feet in excruciating pain and began hopping toward the finish line. Suddenly Derrick's father bounded out of the stands, past a security guard. He threw his arms around his son. In a voice choked with emotion, he whispered, Come on, Son, let's finish this together. The crowd cheered and wept as they watched the father half-carrying his wounded son jerkily down the stretch and across the finish line.* (As told by Jim Nicodem, The Father Heart of God, Preaching Today, Tape No. 152.) If you are 4
concerned about finding your way back home, don t worry. God is here with you saying, Come on, let s finish this together. In the strong name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. *For a video of this race, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2g8kvztwfw. 5